Mixed messages on Afghanistan War

The Obama administration has delivered contradictory messages on whether U.S. troops will remain in Afghanistan beyond 2014, stoking uncertainty in Washington and Kabul over America’s strategic endgame for the 12-year war.

Since President Obama’s pledge to pull American forces out of Afghanistan by the end of next year, the White House and Pentagon have swung between a small U.S. postwar force to advise Afghan forces and a complete withdrawal of all U.S. troops.

In public statements since setting the Afghan withdrawal deadline during a 2010 NATO summit in Lisbon, Obama repeatedly stated his administration’s goal of a complete pullout of American troops from the country.

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“By 2014, this process of [withdrawal] will be complete, and the Afghan people will be responsible for their own security,” the president said in a June 2011 speech at the White House.

A complete drawdown hinges upon Afghan national security officers assuming control of all combat operations from U.S. and NATO troops by 2014. But there are serious doubts that can happen smoothly.

“We’re starting [the withdrawal] … and we’ll be totally out of there, come hell or high water, by 2014,” Vice President Biden said during a December 2010 appearance on NBC’s “Meet The Press.”

As the security situation in Afghanistan began to deteriorate a couple of years ago, the White House abruptly changed its tone on its withdrawal plans and began floating the idea of U.S. troops remaining in Afghanistan after the 2014 deadline.

“We are not leaving if you don’t want us to leave. We plan on continuing to work with you, and it’s in the mutual self-interest of both nations,” Biden said during a joint press conference with Afghan President Hamid Karzai in January 2011.

A year later, then-Defense Secretary Leon Panetta said the Pentagon was preparing for an “enduring presence” in Afghanistan after 2014.

That force, according to Pentagon officials, would be responsible for advising and assisting Afghan forces while conducting counterterrorism operations against the Taliban and al Qaeda in Afghanistan.

The White House and Pentagon are now coalescing around a U.S. force of 10,000 to conduct, advise and assist missions with Afghan forces.

The back-and-forth nature of the administration’s Afghan postwar plan has riled lawmakers on Capitol Hill.

Administration officials have pushed back against such criticism, saying the White House’s postwar plans for Afghanistan have been consistent.

“As the president has repeatedly made clear, we are going to end combat operations in Afghanistan at the end of 2014. We also are in discussions with the Afghans and our partners about a possible post-2014 mission,” White House spokeswoman Laura Magnuson told The Hill on Tuesday.

“We still have work left to conclude the agreement, but we have seen important progress” in U.S.-Afghan postwar talks in recent weeks, she added.

“Our strategy … has brought us to this critical period where now [Afghan military officials] can take the lead and the U.S. can transition to a supporting role,” in the country, a Pentagon official told The Hill.

“We are also making progress on reaching a long-term arrangement with the Afghans that meets the security needs of both countries,” the official added.

The full withdrawal of U.S. forces in Iraq in 2011 “turned out to be a classical failure,” McCain told reporters on Capitol Hill. “That is why I am guardedly optimistic” on the final outcome in Afghanistan.